Plymouth crown court, where the five family members were tried.
Photograph: Victoria Simpson/Rex

Five members of a Czech family have been jailed for after being convicted of trafficking vulnerable men into Britain and forcing them to do hard, humiliating work.

At least eight victims were made to sleep in a garage, on mattresses on a floor and even in a cupboard, and had to supplement their meagre rations by foraging in bins for leftovers. They were forced to work in local factories, carwashes or as domestic servants and one was compelled to cut a lawn using a knife.

Almost all of the money they earned was taken from them and they were beaten, punched and told they would be killed if they tried to escape.

Jailing the two men and three women on Monday at Plymouth crown court, Judge Ian Lawrie said they had treated their victims, who were trafficked from the Czech Republic, as “cash cows”.

Gang leaders Petr Tancos, 37, and his sister, Ruzena Tancosova, 36, were each jailed for six and a half years. Their cousin, Martin Tancos, 37, was sentenced to three years and his partner, Katerina Kurejova, 37, to two years. Petr Tancos’s partner, Nela Dzurkova, 28, received 30 months in prison. The judge said he would recommend all of them be deported upon release.

In court Tancosova was described as the “godmother” of the gang, while Petr Tancos was the “enforcer” who used a baseball bat to assault and threaten the victims. The court heard that the victims had not been locked up but felt trapped because of their lack of money and because they could not speak English.

One man was beaten with a chair and a baseball bat, and another was forced to shoplift, pushing trolley-loads of goods from supermarkets. As part of their humiliation they were forced to use the garden as a toilet or pay £1 to use a proper lavatory.

The five were convicted of trafficking charges by a jury after a two-month trial. They all lived comfortable lifestyles while their victims were forced to work.

Michael Mather-Lees QC, prosecuting, told the court that people-trafficking was a “spider’s web”. Police were alerted to the victims’ plight in February 2014 when two contacted the authorities, trying to escape.

Officers began a seven-month surveillance operation – Operation Triage – and carried out a series of raids on homes in Plymouth in September 2014.

Police estimate dozens of men with drug and alcohol problems were trafficked over several years, earning the gang hundreds of thousands of pounds.